STTR Phase I: Investigation and Optimization of a Novel, Pheromone-based Tool for Measuring Honey bee Colony Pest and Disease Resistance

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The broader impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project includes the reduction of honey bee colony mortality by up to 75% through early identification and improved breeding of pest- and disease-resistant colonies. Honey bees are dying at unprecedented rates, with annual losses up to 45% in the United States. A primary cause of colony death is the parasitic mite Varroa. The unhealthy brood odor (UBO) assay is a pheromone-based tool that reduces labor costs required to measure Varroa-resistance by 18x, accelerating decision-making by 20%. The assay’s user-friendly design makes honey bee selection and queen evaluation more accessible to beekeepers, who are often restricted by the high technical skill and/or extensive labor required for existing assays. The UBO assay has potential to improve honey bee health and increase profitability of beekeeping operations, and thus may significantly improve global crop pollination and food security.The proposed project will assess the technical feasibility of using a honey bee pheromone-based assay to predict colony-level disease- and pest-resistance. This novel tool has the potential to improve honey bee health, revolutionize honey bee breeding, and inform important apiary management decisions, as it improves efficiency and efficacy of honey bee selection by enabling rapid and accurate identification of Varroa-resistant honey bee colonies. However, to be highly effective and achieve widespread uptake the technology must be practically and economically accessible, must perform consistently despite environmental variability, and must be established as a reliable indicator of heritable Varroa-resistance traits. The proposed research will employ sophisticated behavioral, biochemical, breeding, and manufacturing techniques to optimize prototype efficacy, safety, and delivery, reduce production costs, assess prototype performance across environmental variables, and provide a proof-of-concept for heritability of Varroa-resistance traits identified by colony response to the prototype assay. Expected results include improvements to the safety and efficiency of the product delivery system, improved understanding of the effects of environmental variability on product performance, and confirmation of the heritability of traits identified by honey bee behavioral response to in-hive tests of the product.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.